How Long Will Flowers Last with just a Flower Frog?

I’m often filling my pockets with beach rocks, twigs, and pods. I’ve got the stuff spilling out of bowls on shelves, in and around frames, just everywhere.

Usually it sits there waiting for me to use it in some manifestation of craft glory. Most of the time it collects dust and sometimes houses an unlucky bug. The whole water thing can be tricky however. I had never figured out how long these flowers would hold up out of water.

I figured I’d bring everything to my office and see which flower came out on top in a battle to the death (a little dramatic, I know). I finally pulled these larger rocks down to put together a quick, easy, but elegant floral arrangement that could be placed solo on a table for simple elegance, or massed for an odd, minimalistic nature scene.

I used are iris and tulips, with the leaves I removed. I kept some to arrange independently in the frog and others went to the compost heap. A frog is a heavy piece of metal either with dense spikes, or a cage to separate and hold stems in a vase. I used this monstrous one, but there are small frogs the size of a button that are more inconspicuous.

This is so fast, cheap, and simple that it would be great for a DIY bride or party host to throw together, or delegate to a helper!

Anyways, here are the results of my experiment:

Do keep in mind, these flowers were removed from water at 7:30, handled at my morning coffee shop stop, and then endured a jostling bus ride to my office. The tulip got the brunt of the abuse on the bus by unknowingly being tossed under a seat, resulting in an awkward encounter with a stranger and an even more awkward conversation about fabric weight of slacks these days. AND it’s cold here in Seattle so the flowers did not have the heat to contend with (important if your party or event is in the summer or in areas with hotter climates).

Ultimately, my not-so-scientific experiment tells me that a tulip can handle about 2 hours of no water while the powerful iris can handle about 5. What was also interesting was that when placed back in water at the end of their tortuous ordeal, both flowers perked right back up!